rijowysock

purchased vehicle MY02 S2000 :12/05/05
Lowered car on tein Flex w/ edfc 1/8/06
purchased new tires: 1/10/06
Aligned Car 1/12/06
Went in for First Oil Change : 01/18/06
(also warantee fix on broken turn signal, and wipers replaced)

vehicle is lowered, and i offered to bring in my ramps but they were fine, had 2 board in which they use to load race cars onto trucks. i see them get the front 2 jack lifts on, and attempting to get the rear pass on. after one guy trying, they get another guy (big guy) to basically "dead lift" the REAR Passenger fender. (me watching him from inside,thinking to myself.. omfg the fender..)

they then check why the top doesnt close 100%, dont find anything, i forget to once over the car..

i get in the vehicle getting ready to leave,

First off, the Wheel must be placed 30degrees off center (counterclockwise) to make the car drive straight, letting go of wheel.. it is 5degrees off center (counterclockwise) and tracks hard right (pulls approx. 1ft right for every 10 ft. driven "straight"

The alignment was PERFECT before going, Car felt stiff and sturdy, tracked perfecyly straight, wheel centered w/o holding it.

So im thinking.. well maybe when they tried to lift,.. they put a jack or something under a LCA and knocked it outa align or w/e... which is "somewhat" their fault.. but i contact the Alignment Shop in which did the align and they state they will check it..(idk about fixing for free, but will fix on friday 1/20/06)

walking back out to my car, i notice the fender in which they pulled on to lift up car has a massive dent in it.. REALLY NOTICEABLE, 1 LARGE 6" long dent.. and one above to left and below to left.(just the metal flexing from the stress)

which WAS NOT THERE PRIOR. previously to s2k i purchased a civic NEW from Honda, and when i traded her in (purchased jan 01, traded in Dec 05) not one dent, divot, ding, etc. i am the most careful person with my cars only driving them where i feel safe and always watching everyone else 110%..


so i drive back to my Honda dealer. a friend who works there looks it once over and says, eh theyll pop it out. (me afriad because above the rear fender is VERY tricky and always noticeable afterwhich)

i ask for someone else to see it, the main manager guy of the service center comes out and looks it once over and says its not in the paint, theyll pop it... not noticing the 2 dents the MAIN one created. i mention the alignment. but he doesnt care.. obv wasnt them, when (when i brought it in it was fine, and now it handles like a odysee and tracks all over the road) says.. come in tomor and the dent guy will fix it.. me hesitant(on civic i purchased in 01, their was an alignment porblem which they blamed on me and i had to pay for all repairs.) so i ask for it to be written down.. he says alright ill write it down ona business card. i say no, please write it out on a work order...to show that "you caused the damage" well the work order came out:


"customer states fix dent passenger side rear fender"

which i didnt wanna get in a pissing contest and let slide..

questions:

should i have them retype up a work order, and what should it say to show that THEY cuased the damage,

should i even bother w/ the alignment mess.. or just pay the alignment people to redo.. (how can an alignment go from perfect to pulling all over the road during an oil change?) could they have jacked from somewhere odd and moved something? the car feels totally squirelly now.. which the alignment person agreed on, and said "this is very odd"

what do i do if the "dent repair" guy cannot fix it.. and what if he attempts and it still comes out half assed (to me any dent is half assed considering i brought my car in perfect and now i will forever notice the dent .. which is horrible considering my anal retentiveness about my car.. ) can they replace the rear fenders..(i dont think so considering they are part of the body, how could this be fixed.(bondo/etc is UNACCEPTABLE. i have many friends who own body shops and i can always notice whats been fixed.. either the paint mismatches a tiny bit because of UV rays fading oem, or waves/etc in paint. given these people work on high end cars and do great work. but.. like i said im overly anal.

anyone to comment, thank you.

riley wysocki

rijowysock

rijowysock

will have better pic tonight w/o natural light( the sun makes it hard to see clearly in a pic)

mucter

that is terrible. I wouldn't let them get away with any of it, personally. But I guess it doesn't help that you left the place without noticing the problems. It's hard to nail it on them. Sorry bro You may have to appeal to the owner of the dealership to make sure it is taken care of properly.

After I took my car in to get the oem accessories fitted to it and they made a mess in my car and scratched up my center console, I decided firmly that the dealer would never see the car again.

rijowysock

i noticed it 1 mile later,

odo: on oil change= 34808
odo: when i came back and showed them and they made the form: 34809

which shows it couldnt have happened in meantime. so basically what should i do

rijowysock

measured and measured and align: Front Driver wheel seems to be kick in(toe in 3/4" to 7/8") unable to measure exactly w/o independent wheel measuring device(im measure both L/R together ) last align i had 0 toe front)and also seems to be cambered considerably more than the Pass side, only thoughts are maybe they didnt tighten the bolt all the way down (i know the LCA bolts have a nut to tighten/loosen that makes it possible to adjust camber/caster/toe Via uneven bolt) maybe it became loose and then raising car up on lift made it fall outa whack (should be the alignment places fault due to not properly tightening..so thats taken care of.the fender... pics below..the 6" one is the main dent (comes out) other 2 are depressions caused by the main dent)

pics,
front pics u can tell the toe in on driver side..

rijowysock

anyone else?

i guess just bitch, complain and hope the dent popper guy does his shit..

and also pray the align people take responsibility since only 27miles on her since align

mucter

as long as none of your suspension is bent, I'd assume the alignment people would take care of it, because it should be fairly obvious that they missed something.

As far as the dent is concerned, there really isn't much you can do other than just take it one step at a time and hope that they can get it out. When the time comes, if they can't fix it completely, just stand firm and try to be professional with them. But it is definately their responsibility to fix it.

rijowysock

thanx mucter.. yeah thats what i was thinking, that the alignment couldnt be bent so only explanation is a bolt moved.. because nothing moves in the Susp...

we'll see tomor on the dent, i highly doubt the "dent " guy can get it otu but we'll see.. ill show em a lawsuit b4 bondo touches my car tho.

JonasM

One comment: do not get angry with them. Stay firm, but polite. Countless threads on stuff like this seem to turn on the attitude of the injured party. If you get upset and start yelling, your chances of a happy ending plummet. Even if you finally win by, say, going to court, you might have gotten the same result by being polite and understanding, but unwavering in what you expect them to do about the situation.

Good luck!

JonasM